Photo: Gaitano Pessa/Daily Nation
Travelers are screened for the Ebola virus before getting into Kenya at the Busia One Stop Border Post on June 12, 2019, following three confirmed cases in Kasese, western Uganda.
By Jeremiah Wakaya
Nairobi — A female patient with Ebola-like symptoms has been quarantined at the Kericho County Referral Hospital as health officials await for laboratory test results.
The county’s head of communication, Timothy Kemei, said in a statement to newsrooms Tuesday morning samples of the said patient had been taken to the Kenya Medical Research Institute for analysis with results due within 24 hours.
The county assured that all necessary precautionary measures had been taken to prevent an outbreak.
“The County Government assures the public that the County Referral Hospital is capable and well equipped to ensure the proper isolation of the patient and the protection of other hospital users and calls on everyone to maintain calm and patience,” the statement read in part.
Kemei however pointed out that the quarantine procedure was initiated as a measure of caution and that the symptoms exhibited by the patient may as well be connected to a disease other than Ebola.
“It is important to note that the symptoms that have been exhibited by the patient can be indicative of any other medical condition and so there is no confirmed case of Ebola in Kericho at the moment,” he said.
Kenyan health officials had been put on high alert since reports of an outbreak in neighbouring Uganda last week where two people died of the disease.
